Ischell pickup/mic system question - how is it ?

anthon_74

Hi there,

Have you used this system ? How is it ? Does it really sound as clear as a mic, but without the feedback ?
My Group is gigging more and more and I'm sick of being behind a bunch of mics, both for my vocals and for my guitar, so I need need a better system for my Selmac guitar to be amplified, and I PREFER natural sound, NOT the slightly driven pickup sound.

thanks,

Anthony

Jim Kaznosky

I've been using it since Michael got it. It's great. You must learn where to place it, that is on a brace. once you get it there, it is great. My other guitar player was anti-stick on and was content with the bigtone until I lent him mine. Now, it's all he uses.

Paulius Volkovas

I also use it and like it alot. I should note that placement is very important, because it can sound really bad if placed incorrectly. I use a Reaper DAW and record how it sounds when positioning the pickup. Then i play the recorded track and if it doesnt sound right i change the placement of pickup and record again until im happy with the sound. It takes time, but once you find the perfect spot it sounds real good.

kevingcox

I'll pop in for the holy trinity of placement is everything with this mic. Some of my bandmates have managed to get great sound but I could never seem to find the perfect spot for my taste... but then again, I'm one of those people who always hates their own sound.

klaatu

I've been using one for a couple of years. It is the best combination of natural sound and feedback avoidance of any pickup/mike I've tried so far, and that includes Schertler Basik, AT831b, bigtone, and Schatten (plus Krivo and Peche a la mouche, but those are magnetics). You definitely need to play around with placement, as it will vary by guitar, but as noted, it is important to position it over a brace.

BTW, Kevin is trying the new Patrick Inghilleri mike system which Denis Chang demos in this video. To my ears, the sound is exceptionally accurate and acoustic. It is supposed to be highly feedback resistant. We did experience some problems with it in a recent gig, but that was probably due to weird speaker placement in this venue causing interaction with a vocal mike and in turn interacting with the guitar, not really something the pickup is designed to fight. The Leri Website has to be one of the worst ever, though, very hard to understand what you should be ordering, and Patrick's English is not so good - his responses to e-mails are in a sort of Franglish that can be hard to decipher.

Al Watsky

The demo's of the Inghilleri make it sound more "open" than the Ischell.
I went to hear Jim's gig a couple of nights ago and the leader of that band uses a Barault guitar and an Ischell. I know the sound of his guitar well and I would say that the Ischell sounded as though you put your ear up to the guitar top while it was being played. Which isn't to say that it sounded like a guitar in the room. It sounded like a super hyper cardioid mic set "almost" directly on the top over a brace.
It sounded good, very good but its still a "type" of sound. It is a contact mic.
The clip of the Inghilleri sounds less midrange heavy but that could be DC's guitar in part, he's using an AJL.
The Barault is different.
But ?
My call the Ischell is good , some sense of compression in the midrange a flat high frequency response and a roll off on the lows.
The Inghilleri clip, and its just a clip, not something I heard live in the room sounds more open, with a much higher frequency reach, flatter mids and a low roll off. Less the contact vibe so less compression in the mid's . Which sounds more open, which is nice and a bit more microphone like, bearing in mind that in fact the ischell is a mic.
2 products with very different sonic fingerprints.
I suppose with the preamp thats offered with the Inghilleri you would have more control of the shaping than the Ischell which is sold with a buffer that has a couple of notch filters.
But my feeling about pickups and mic's is that if they need excessive treatment they aren't really much use live.
A preamp with a lot of bells and whistles is not my first choice for a gig.
The first iteration of the Inghilleri preamp was very complicated, it was said that that was a prototype and that the production model would be simplified, that would be good.
Guess the low roll on the Ischell may be a result of the rocker switch settings .
The Inglhlleri sounds more transparent which is a good thing for fidelity and is a good characteristic for a mic.
Still although the clip demonstrates transparency its not necessarily the "best" just the most transparent.
Unless transparency is your only criteria.

kevingcox

The preamp that currently ships with the Inghelleri is nothing compared to the beast in Denis's demo videos. It has two very simple volume and gain knobs with 5 EQ sliders, that's it.

Al Watsky

kevingcox wrote: »

The preamp that currently ships with the Inghelleri is nothing compared to the beast in Denis's demo videos. It has two very simple volume and gain knobs with 5 EQ sliders, that's it.

That should be more than enough for a dedicated EQ designed for the pickup.
Way to go.

martin b

The question I'd like to ask about the Inghilleri system is, do you need to have the preamp at all? The current standard unit is indeed a rudimentary affair, just simple gain and eq it would appear. The pickup requires no phantom power, and in Denis's clips he states he runs it into an AER with flat eq. Sounds to me like it may work fine with any preamp or acoustic amp. Can anyone who is using one clarify whether there are any specific reasons, impedance matching for example, why you would have to use the Inghilleri preamp?
The website is definitely a little opaque and lean on detail, but the clips really do sound impressive, and I'm intrigued to say the least.

klaatu

As I recall from Kevin's unit, the mike's cable terminates in a ⅛" jack. It would be interesting to try it with a Baggs Para DI and an adapter.

MattHenry

I have an Inghilleri system (the ING102) and thought I'd crosslink my review here to help folks following Anthony's OP being about the Ischell contact mic.

http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/13091/review-the-inghilleri-ing102-mic-pickup-system